Welcome
Welcome to the December issue of Markets View. Let me start by wishing you an
very Happy Christmas and all the very best for the New Year ahead.
New course dates for 2009 are now available. There is a special Christmas Presenting Quiz for you to test your
colleagues.
A special Christmas present for all my readers worth £100. The A to Z
of Effective Presentations article in this issue is dedicated to the
letter "S". "S"
is for Summary, Signposts, Smiling and Scripts.
Yours
sincerely,
Graham Young
+44 1276 502257
Upcoming Courses
There is
just one course left this year:
Effective Business Presentations Wed 17th December in Heathrow
And for
you my loyal reader, I have a special Christmas present worth £100
You can send someone on this course for just £185 (+ VAT at only 15%).
That is a full £100 off the normal price.
Places are
limited, so you may need to be quick.
For more
information or to book click
here.
New Course Dates for 2009 
The dates
for all my courses during the first half of 2009 are now available,
starting with the first one in Oxford on 16th January.
You can
download the Course Calendar in pdf format by clicking
here.
Christmas Presentation
Quiz
So who
thinks he or she is the best presenter in your office?
Who knows
all there is to know about creating and delivering presentations?
Try my new
Presentation Quiz, compare your scores and find out once and for all who
really is the best.
It doesn't
take long, try it and see.
Click here to begin .
The A to Z of Effective Presentations
In
previous newsletters, which you can access
here,
I have covered A to R , so now it is the letter "S". In this issue "S"
stands for Summary, Signposts, Smile and Scripts.
S is for Summary
There is
an age-old saying when it comes to presenting:
"Tell
them what you are going to tell them,
tell them, tell them what you have told them."
This
principle has stood the test of time. It works. By outlining the areas
that you will be talking about, it provides your audience with a
structure. This makes it easier for them to follow your presentation.
I've
recently heard this re-phrased as:
'Tell them how you are going to bore them, bore them, tell them how you bored them'
I think
that is unfair, as long as when you are telling them what you are going
to say, you do so in a way that generates interest rather than
pre-empting the presentation.
At the end
of your presentation, do not forget to summarise the key point(s) and
then make a call to action.
Once you
have made the call to action end the presentation. Do not be tempted to
add extra bits that you have thought of as you were going along, or
pieces that you inadvertently missed earlier in the presentation. The
"call to action" must be the last thing you say before you sit down.
S is for Signpost
In
previous newsletters, I have made a big play on not letting your
audience get ahead of you. And I stand by this 100%.
Do not
take people in a straight line from start to finish, they will want to
jump ahead of you. The opposite is also true. Your presentation should
not be full of surprises and non-sequiturs. Your presentation needs to
take people along with it, so you do not want to jump from one subject
to another.
It is
preferable to take then on a gently meandering course. Some signposts
which point people in the direction you are going are always helpful.
Split the
presentation up to make it easier for people to follow and understand. Each new section will reawaken their interest if it has started to
flag.
Use verbal
signposts e.g. 'Which leads me on to ...' 'Now we will ....' to smooth
out the transitions between one sub-topic and the next.
S is for Smile
Smile and the whole world smiles back, say the bumper stickers.
This is never more true than when you are presenting. With the odd
exception of having to deliver bad news, it is invariably better to
smile. Look like you are enjoying giving the presentation and your
audience are more likely to enjoy it too.
If you are
nervous, look for friendly smiling faces in the audience and give them
lots of eye contact to begin with, it will help to calm your nerves. Do
not forget to look at everyone else in the audience as your presentation
progresses.
S is for Scripts
Some
people will find it helpful to write out a full script of what they are
going to present, in order to organise their thoughts and plan their
presentation. Whatever you do, do not try using that script to support
you while you give the talk.
Scripts do
not work well as speaker's notes.
One of the
problems of writing a script and them memorising it is that you rarely
talk the same ways as your write. By only having bullet points to
remind you of the key topics, you will find that you use your own
natural conversational language rather than the more staid language you
use when writing a formal document.
Secondly,
it is very difficult to find your place in a script. As soon as you
deviate from the script, you will find it very difficult to find your
place to start using it again.
Thirdly,
if you are reading from a script, you will not be able to maintain eye
contact with your audience.
Improve
Your Presentations
I hope you
have found this newsletter useful and interesting. You can learn a lot
more about how to structure and give an Effective Business Presentation,
by:
-
Attending a Young Markets Effective Presentations Skills training
course
-
Reading my ebook "The
A to Z of Effective Business Presentations" which
you can download from my
website
today.
-
Taking my on-line course which is just one of the many sales related
training modules at
www.salestrainingonline.com
Please feel free to
forward this on to your friends and colleagues. If you have
received this second hand and would like your own personal copy of
future issues, please click here. |
